Leprosy and Mold

Mark 1:29-45 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

⁴⁰ A man afflicted with tzara‘at came to Yeshua and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” ⁴¹ Moved with pity, Yeshua reached out his hand, touched him and said to him, “I am willing! Be cleansed!” ⁴² Instantly the tzara‘at left him, and he was cleansed. ⁴³ Yeshua sent him away with this stern warning: ⁴⁴ “See to it that you tell no one; instead, as a testimony to the people, go and let the cohen examine you, and offer for your cleansing what Moshe commanded.” ⁴⁵ But he went out and began spreading the news, talking freely about it; so that Yeshua could no longer enter a town openly but stayed out in the country, where people continued coming to him from all around.

A little research caused me to understand something about the lepers in the Bible. Leprosy could not be ritually cleansed according to Jewish rituals of the time. The priestly ritual was for the purpose of ‘announcing’ or publishing the fact that the ‘leper’ had been determined to be clean. I found an article from a Jewish educational website that explains that tzara’at was a ‘disease caused by sin’ and that it was not the disease that today we call leprosy. Rabbinical wisdom taught that tzara’at was not a typical disease, but a disease that was caused by wrong behavior. Causes listed in the Talmud included gossip, murder, perjury, forbidden sexual relationships, arrogance, theft, and envy. A prominent midrash connects the disease particularly with gossip: “connecting the word metzora, a person afflicted with the condition, to motzi shem ra, a person guilty of slander or libel.” Tzara’at could afflict fabric also, as well as the plaster in the walls of houses. It displayed itself in such cases as greenish or reddish streaks. In people it was a whitish and scaly appearance of the skin. 

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tzaraat-a-biblical-affliction/

SIN (CHET):

How could fabric or plaster walls be ‘sinful’? Well, the same online source as the above articles suggests, under the topic of “sin,” that sin is ‘sickness,’ or a  state of unwholesomeness, and that today we might use words like “infected,” “contaminated,” or “toxic” to describe the same state in a person, a building, or a piece of clothing. Look at common terms such as ““dysfunctional” and “toxic person;” along with descriptions like “sick building syndrome” which are used today in exactly the same context as the ancient rabbis used the term “tzara’at.”

REPENTANCE (TESHUVA):

 “Teshuvah [return] is the key concept in the rabbinic view of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. The tradition is not of one mind on the steps one must take to repent of one’s sins. However, almost all agree that repentance requires five elements: recognition of one’s sins as sins (hakarát ha-chét’), remorse (charatá), desisting from sin (azivát ha-chét’), restitution where possible (peira’ón), and confession (vidui).” In a more modern take— “And translated into everyday language, what is repentance? What, indeed, but the need and the longing to change, the effort to heal ourselves, the quest for a cure for our sickness of soul.”

Quotes in italics are taken from various articles on the website, My Jewish Learning: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/

So, the point of all the stories about Jesus making lepers clean was that it couldn’t be done. All the priests could do was isolate and observe the sufferer to determine if they were clean or unclean. The ‘disease’ had to run its course, and whoever had it would remain unclean until the priests said otherwise. As far as buildings and clothing went, the ‘cure’ was pretty much limited to demolition— either partial or complete.

I couldn’t help but think of the strenuous modern methods of ‘cleansing’ a building of black mold. If it’s gotten into the walls, in fiberboard or drywall, it can’t be removed. The walls have to be demolished. Hard surfaces can be decontaminated with bleach, but not porous materials.

I’ve included all this research and tedious detail in hopes of supporting my idea that we have somehow developed a seriously faulty understanding of “sin”— by somehow equating sin with a crime which needs to be punished. In the rabbinical understanding, sin was not considered something to be punished. Punishment never occurred to them. Sin was a condition of imbalance or ill-health, to be dealt with in the same way that a physician would deal with an illness. The remedy for the illness of sin was the medicine of repentance, and the methods of treatment were the five elements of recognition, remorse, cessation, restitution, and confession. The purpose of the treatment was to stop the process of decay, dissolution, contamination, or instability, and allow the person (or building, or rug, or garment) to come back to a state of health, functionality, cleanliness, and equilibrium.

Quite a few years ago, I was afflicted with a skin condition and debilitating muscle pain that I called my “Mystery Disease.” No doctor was able to figure it out. I was incapacitated and utterly devastated. I couldn’t walk; I couldn’t even get in and out of bed. I put a futon mattress on the floor and laid there for two weeks, fully prepared to die. Some friends of mine came and conveyed me to the doctor. Nearly a year later, after dermatologists, neurologists, and rheumatologists had all failed to diagnose and effectively treat whatever was wrong with me, I finally found an alternative medicine doctor who gave me exhaustive tests and prescribed a diet which eventually minimized the symptoms, although he was never able to give me a definitive diagnosis either. I finally came to the conclusion that the mystery disease was caused by my body-mind being subjected to extreme stress. That was more than 15 years ago.

I find it helpful to apply the definition of sin that I described above to my “mystery disease.” Extrapolating that definition outward, to apply to others, especially those “others” that might be described as “sinners,” I find myself immediately drawn toward compassion. The Buddhist in me immediately thinks of suffering-and-discontent, i.e. “dukkha.” It’s very enlightening to think of ‘dukkha’ and ‘sin’ as generally analogous.  All of us are ‘sin-sufferers.’

Sometimes it’s our own actions that produce this suffering, but more often than not, it isn’t. We suffer from dis-ease, yes; but even more from animosity, neglect, indifference, hatred, scorn, greed, dishonesty, and most of all, entropy. We know the sensation of sliding into chaos— we can’t help but see the signs, and we are afraid.

I think that the leper in the gospel reading knew he was a ‘sin-sufferer’ but he just couldn’t see any way to fix it. Jesus touched him when he was unclean and, instead of making Jesus unclean, it made the leper clean! That was the reason that the leper found the Way— in that moment he saw how to heal his condition— he saw the path of repentance.  So, I’m afraid that I must issue a prophetic call to repentance. Not just to this person, or that— but to all of us. I can’t point any fingers. Or maybe I can— to the need for us to recognize ourselves in the Other. Isn’t that the first step toward the cure?

Come back!

We are all afflicted with the disease of blame!



Recognize!

We all know suffering when we see it!

Mourn!

We all know the misery of loss!

Desist!

We all know how to tell if we are in denial!

Repair!

We all know the relief that comes from fixing something broken!

Confess!

We all know how to admit it when we’ve missed the mark!





The only way to stop missing the mark is to improve our aim!





Understand that love is the target; the bow, compassion; the arrows, mercy.



Grieve for all the wayward arrows lost in the overgrown, bloody weeds.



Stop pretending we meant to shoot at some other target only we could see!



Bandage the wounds we’ve caused and clean up the blood we’ve spilled!



Admit that the arrows belong to all of us!